Insulated wall construction



May 30, 1961 D. w. DONNELLY INSULATED WALL CONSTRUCTION Driginal Filed Feb. 18, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 avail:

INVENTOR DANIEL W. DONNELLY ATTORNEYS D. W. DONNELLY INSULATED WALL CONSTRUCTION Original Filed Feb. 18, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 30, 1961 INVENTOR DANIEL W. DONNELLY ATTORNEYS 2,986,301 INSULATED WALL CONSTRUCTION Daniel W. Donnelly, Brookfield, Wis., asslgnor to Ben-Hur- Mfg. Company, Milwaukee, Wis.

Original application Feb. 18, 1957, Ser. No. 640,894. Digitlsegzgnd this application Oct. 23, 1959, Ser. No.

2 Claims. (Cl. 220-15) This invention appertains to farm and home freezers, refrigerators and the like, and more particularly to the insulated wall construction for freezers and refrigerators including means for connecting the breaker strip with the edges of the inner and outer shells of the wall and this application is a division of my application Serial Number 640,894 filed February 18, 1957, now Patent No. 2,951,609 issued September 6, 1960.

One of the primary objects of this invention is to provide a novel and simple means for bridging and firmly uniting the edges of the inner and outer wall shells of a freezer or refrigerator by a rigid breaker strip having low heat conducting properties, in such a manner that the strip can be sprung in place into engagement with the wall shells irrespective of slight irregularities in distance between the shells with means including resilient finishing strips for holding the breaker stripfirmly in place after the same has been sprung into engagement with the shells.

Another salient object of the invention is to provide the wall shells with inwardly extending integral supporting flanges for the breaker strip, the breaker strip in turn having longitudinally extending, outwardly inclined grooves for receiving inclined flanges on the supporting flanges, the grooves being of a greater width than the holding flanges to compensate for slight varying distances between the wall shells and for permitting the springing of the holding flanges in the grooves.

A further important object of my invention is the provision of resilient and compressible marginal trim strips having depending compressible ribs for insertion between the longitudinal edges of the breaker strip and the inner faces of the wall shells, whereby to effectively hold the breaker strip and the trim strips in their proper assembled position.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and formation of parts, as will be hereinafter more specifically described and claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which drawings,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of one well known type of freezer having my present invention incorporated therewith;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse sectional view through the upper portion of one wall of the cabinet or body of the freezer, the view illustrating a preferred form of uniting the wall shells together by a breaker strip and marginal trim strips;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of one wall of the cabinet or body with parts thereof broken away and in section to illustrate structural detail, and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 2, but showing the assembly prior to the placing of the marginal trim strips in position.

Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter F generally indicates a freezer of the farm or home type and the same 2,986,301 Patented May 30, 1961 hinged cover C.

In the drawings, the freezer F has been shown to be of the chest type, but it is to be understood that my invention can be applied to freezers and refrigerators of the upright type and that the invention relates to a particular wall and breaker strip construction, as will now appear.

In the present showing, the body or cabinet B includes front and rear Walls 5 and 6 and end walls 7. These walls each include inner and outer wall shells 8 and 9; The space between the shells '8 and 9 is packed with any desired type of heat insulating material 10.

In accordance with my invention the inner and outer wall shells 8 and 9 have formed thereon inwardly and downwardly bent back flanges 1-1. These flanges are disposed at an incline to the top wall shells 8 and 9. The lower edges of these bent back flanges 11 have formed thereon inwardly directed horizontally disposed supporting flanges 12, and these flanges in turn have formed on their extreme inner marginal edges upwardly and inwardly inclined gripping flanges .13. The gripping flanges 13 and the bent back flanges 11 form in effect, dovetail shaped retaining grooves. The gripping flanges 13 terminate a material distance below the marginal outer edges of the wall shells 8 and 9.

In the present construction, I employ a sub-breaker strip 14 having formed on its lower face longitudinally extending grooves 15. The grooves 15 extend inwardly at an angle to the vertical. The outer longitudinal edges of the breaker strip 1 4 are tapered upwardly and inwardly, as at 16, and hence the grooves 15 and the inclined edges 16 form in eflect longitudinally extending dovetail shaped ribs or tongues. The breaker strip 14 is formed from rigid material having low heat conductive properties, and high mechanical strength, such as compressed fiber board.

The breaker strip is of a slightly less width than the distance between the wall shells 8 and 9 and the inclined flanges 11. Thus, when the breaker strip is forced into place, as will be later set forth, a space is present between the inclined edges 16 of the breaker strip and the inclined flanges 11.

With the upper edges of the marginal wall shells 8 and 9 formed as described, the breaker strip 1 4 is layed on the inwardly inclined gripping flanges 13 and the breaker strip is then forcibly pressed into place so that the gripping flanges will spring into the grooves 14.

The flat outer trim strip 17, possessing a finished appearance, is secured to the upper face of the breaker strip 14 and marginal trim strips 18 are employed for finishing 01f the wall and for holding the breaker strip 14 and trim strip 17 firmly in place. The marginal trim strips 18 are formed from rubber or some other desirable compressible material. Each trim strip includes an outer wall 19, a top wall 20 and an inwardly directed depending longitudinal rib 21. The rib 21, on each strip is set in from the inner edge of its strip and the top wall gradually tapers down to a feather edge toward its inner face. The wall 19 and rib 21, in elfect, form a groove, for a purpose which will now be set forth.

As stated, the trim strips 18 are formed of compres- V upper edges of the wall shells fit snugly in the grooves of the spaces between the outer walls 19 and their ribs 21. The extreme inner edges of the marginal strips 18 overlie and engage the outer trim strip 17. The compressible ribs 21 function to firmly secure the sub-breakcr includes an open body or cabinet B normally closed by a strip in place, and of course, the forcing of the ribs in position also functions to hold the outer trim strips 18 in place.

If desired, a suitable adhesive or mastic can be employed between the trim strips 18 and adjacent parts.

From the foregoing, it can be seen, that I' have pro.- vided an exceptionally simple but effective means for placing and holding sub-breaker strips in place, and that the sub-breaker strips themselves form an efficient means to space and hold the wall shells in proper spaced relation.'

Changes in details may be made without departing from the spirit or the scope of this invention, but what I claim as new is:

1. In an insulated wall construction for freezers, refrigerators and the like of the type having spaced parallel inner and outer wall shells; folded back flanges on the outer edges of said shells disposed at an incline relative to said shells, substantially horizontally disposed supporting flanges on the inner edges of said folded back flanges, upwardly extending gripping flanges on the inner edges of the supporting flanges, a breaker strip fitted on the supporting flanges and having formed on its inner face upwardly directed longitudinally extending grooves receiving the gripping flanges, the marginal edges of the breaker strip being spaced from the folded back flanges and inclining in the same direction as said folded back flanges, and marginal trim strips having depending compressible ribs sprung into the spaces between the marginal edges of the breaker strip and said folded back flanges and frictionally engaging said last named flanges and marginal edges of the breaker strip to hold the breaker strip frictionally in place.

2. In an insulated wall construction for freezers, refrigerators and the like as defined in claim 1, and a fiat trim strip fitted against the outer surface of the breaker strip, and said marginal trim strips having portions snugly engaging the outer faces of the outer wall shell and the flat trim strip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,792,959 Diamond et al May 21, 1957 

